The story is set in the World of Warcraft, but the characters are all my OC. I want to make it clear that the -characters- are created by me. The story is just set in WoW lore.
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"So far, so good," Zahrine breathed to herself. She tightened her gauntlets around the reins of the beast beneath her. If she dropped her guard for even a moment, something could take her by surprise. That was a risk that she was not willing to take. The eagle-eyed priestess brushed a lock of her blonde undercut from her face and narrowed her gaze. She could hear every staggered step of her mount beneath her as the stallion delivered her through Feralas. Each hoofbeat rang out into the motionless forest around the pair, out into the low mist just off the road - what of a 'road' it was.
Crunch-crunch.
Zahrine's stallion tread lightly on the woodland path carved out in between the creaking old hardwoods. The hammock of tree canopies overhead filtered out the fading autumnal light as the sun sank towards an unseen horizon beyond the foliage. Thin columns of amber shone down onto the trail comprised of worn-smooth cobblestones being reclaimed in old growth spider webbing up onto the surface from the network of tendrils infiltrating the soil. Overtop the obfuscated footpath lay a carpet of leaves in a range of hues from the same gold tint as the sunbeams to a deep, ruddy brown. The slender shadow priestess' dusky mount maneuvered along the rapid decay of the overturning forest as his wrought-iron horseshoes crunched the leaves underfoot. Each hulking muscle movement of his tree trunk body caused Zahrine's black steel sabatons to rattle gently against his side.
Crunch-crunch.
Her eyes darted back and forth in the surrounding brush that comprised the floor of the ancient forest of Feralas. She wasn't welcome in this forest, and she felt as though her presence alone was being contended against by the spiraling old pillars of oak and fir that enclosed the rough-hewn trail stretching out in front of her. It was eerily quiet, and that sort of environment leant itself to tactical complications. Albeit content with the knowledge that Zahrine could summon her energy and reduce most assailants down to compost for the plant life to thrive upon, the fact that a wayward branch snapping could be either a threat or a harmless woodland rodent was.. unsettling at best. Opting to play it safe, the Alliance liaison had gone for a low profile and summoned her faithful steed, Justice. Perhaps, then, her passage through the primordial grove go unnoticed. Had she instead gone for a great, winged, flying beast that she would typically select for such a journey, there would be no mistake that she was a threat, and a contender in the constant power struggle boiling under the surface in this land.
Crunch-crunch.
Her raiding party awaited her at Dreamer's Rest, which was several leagues ahead of her on the road. They were encamped there, awaiting her arrival to coordinate an assault on a nearby Horde settlement. If she had been made somewhere in-transit, identifying her as a figure that could tip the delicate balance of power in this region would not have been a misplaced assessment. Thankfully, Zahrine had put the majority of the distance behind her without issue - but something was still off. Feralas was a secluded rainforest tucked away in southern Kalimdor and surrounded by ringed mountain ranges. For all intents and purposes, only the most intrepid of traveler would consider venturing into these lands.
But that wasn't enough to convince Zahrine that the utter absence of passers-by on the trail she had been riding was normal.
Cr-crunch, Cr-crunch.
Zahrine yanked on the horse's reins, prompting the equine behemoth to halt his march forwards on the overgrown path. Something off, indeed. Only some of those sounds were made by Justice, that much she knew. The uneasy stillness of the wood that had been encroaching upon her throughout the trip suddenly felt less like a characteristic of the landscape and more like imminent danger. Zahrine tensed herself, and summoned power from a wellspring of void energy - the magical equivalent to pulling the hammer back on a crossbow. She would be ready to lash out with a burst of shadow magic at the first sign of reified threat. Now, with the beast out of the equation, Zahrine turned her senses outwards, and listened.
Rustle-rustle.
Lumbering silhouettes materialized in the low-lying mists that hung throughout the underbrush. Zahrine was no stranger to siege, and she knew what she was looking at. These creatures were big-boned, small-minded, and sported a mean streak a mile wide - especially when conducting an ambush like the one she was about to be firmly in the middle of.
"Orcs," Zahrine confirmed under her breath.
Something was still off about the situation, even with the threat made itself known. The brutes were upon her quickly, springing out of the treeline and cresting nearby hills with speed and coordination that was unlike anything Zahrine had experienced. Orcs of this caliber - sporting juryrigged armor comprising of lashings of leather and great slabs of tree bark - normally would never orchestrate such a strike with the timing and grace that theses ones did. Not without some kind of leadership pulling the strings. Zahrine didn't have time to muse on that possibility, however, because she was going to need to let fly the shadow energy trapped behind her fingertips.